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Yes. I personally know an Air Force major that had to leave because of being passed over for promotion twice. This happened within the last couple of months.
Normally, passed-over Majors are allowed to stay until their 20 year mark. However, the USAF is downsizing. Most likely he's in an 'excess' career field and his command informed him that they are recommending him for involuntary separation.
If he "voluntarily" separates, then he will get a larger separation bonus: approximately $125k before taxes. That may seem like a lot of money, but remember that he will lose all rights to a pension, plus all the military benefits like the commissary. Furthermore, since he's 2x passed over, he will not be able to go into the Reserves.
Right now he is an E5. To be an E6, a board looks at your record (for only a minute or two) and says yes or no - then keeps moving down the list of people who were up for that promotion.
We find out today or tomorrow if he got it - without the board changing the bad fitrep. We obviously still have a chance (even if he is initially passed over) because the old fitrep could be changed.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed . . .
If he doesn't get it, I'm going to need advice for what he should do from this point on. At the risk of this sounding like a stupid question...is there any other way for him to stay in (if he gets passed over) like switching his job?
O.K., that's why I asked.....Is the Marine promotion board (E6 and above) local or is it like the Army's, done at the Washington (ours is called the DA)?
It's done in Quantico. For every job a list of how many people they want to promote, a date range for people considered to be in the promotion zone, the above zone, and the below zone for every job. The records for all the people being considered are broken up between the members of the board who then go home and study them. Then when they reconvene they put your photo on the big screen and members brief the package to the rest of the board, then they all vote up or down on whether you get promoted. They look through all of the packages in the zone, if they don't find enough people "qualified" to be promoted they look through all of the packages in the above zone. If they still have holes they look through select packages in the below zone.
@Jaylijah Have him go recruiting. You'll both most likely hate the duty but it'll be worth it in the end.
Yes, as the one poster pointed out, apply for recruiting duty...
If not then he has the GI Bill and he can go the Guard route to get his 20. It looks like he will not be able to go Marine reserves because of high year tenure, but guard is a different animal.
The military is about to enter a period of significant downsizing, so recruiting will be affected. The standards are about to go up, and many already in won't be retained.
Given today's economy, I would be extremely wary about leaving the military without a locked-in civilian job to jump to. It's tough out there, it really is.
During the Clinton draw-down era. The Navy easily drew down E3s, E4s and E5s; by simply refusing to allow them to re-enlist. Only those who had the highest Personnel Evaluations were allowed to re-up, approximately the top 10%.
E7s, E8s and E9s however were left alone. So under the projections for the draw-down those pay-grades were severely over-manned. [150% to 200% over-manned]
In about 1995 to 2002 there were a great many of us E6s who were all eligible to make advancement, but there were no open billets to advance up into.
On my last sub for example, I was stationed in the Navigation Center. A billeted 9 man division, which normally has a spread of pay-grades: 1 or 2 E6s, 3 or 4 E5s, and 4 or 5 E4s. Instead we had 8 E6s and one E5. The entire herd of us E6s were all eligible for advancement to E7, but the Navy already had far too many E7s. So none of us could advance. As each of us approached our HTY dates were were booted out.
He doesn't have a civilian job locked in, but my mother is high people at a hospital and has offered him a job in human resources. Not to mention, my husband is bilingual, which helps in the job market.
Still, I agree that he should stay in. Unfortunately, that might be out of his control...at least to an extent. Unless he's ready to switch over to another job or the army.
I'm sure he is on pins and needles waiting to find out and that's why I'm not asking him these questions. He doesn't need me stressing him / freaking him out right now with all my concerns. I'm sure he is already worried.
He doesn't have a civilian job locked in, but my mother is high people at a hospital and has offered him a job in human resources. Not to mention, my husband is bilingual, which helps in the job market.
Still, I agree that he should stay in. Unfortunately, that might be out of his control...at least to an extent. Unless he's ready to switch over to another job or the army.
I'm sure he is on pins and needles waiting to find out and that's why I'm not asking him these questions. He doesn't need me stressing him / freaking him out right now with all my concerns. I'm sure he is already worried.
Yep, cause just wait till you have to pay that first BIG dental bill...they don't play like the medical insurance does....you have to pay your half before they work on you....
Normally, passed-over Majors are allowed to stay until their 20 year mark. However, the USAF is downsizing. Most likely he's in an 'excess' career field and his command informed him that they are recommending him for involuntary separation.
If he "voluntarily" separates, then he will get a larger separation bonus: approximately $125k before taxes. That may seem like a lot of money, but remember that he will lose all rights to a pension, plus all the military benefits like the commissary. Furthermore, since he's 2x passed over, he will not be able to go into the Reserves.
Yes, that's exactly the situation. I believe he's at his 14-yr mark, and I do believe that he (wisely) decided to pass up on the separation bonus.
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